Knowing when to stop

When I say stop, I don’t mean quit, I mean identifying ones physical limits and recognizing when pushing your body too far will carry serious consequences. This weekend I knew I had to stop.

It is amazing to me what my body can do if I let my mind believe it can do it. Of course, a friend of mind reminded me the other day that with my personality (Type A as I have mentioned) I am lucky if my mind listens to what my body has to say, as it is most likely to ignore anything it does not want to hear. While this has certainly been true many times in the past, this marathon training is teaching me to be more in tune with my body and with what it is telling me. As I get older (something I have also mentioned is happening to me) I have found that my body does have limits, limits that I was not aware of in the past. In discussing this with my husband he likened it to our capacity for alcohol consumption. In our twenties, we could drink until we reached, no passed, that unpleasant feeling, got sick, went to sleep and bounced back the next morning. Now, more than a shared bottle of wine in one sitting makes starting the next day that much more painful.

This Labor Day weekend I had planned on running my scheduled 15 mile training run with my group on Saturday morning at 5:30 am, and then participating in the Nike Human Race 10K in Austin on Sunday evening at 6:30pm. After Saturday’s 2 hr and 47 minute run (including breaks) I was tired but felt great, nothing that proper refueling and an afternoon nap did not cure. However, come mid-day Sunday it started to become clear to me that another hour long run, combined with three hours of driving was probably not the wisest decision. Additionally, I had been fighting some sort of stomach bug all week and on Friday afternoon my toddler began to experience symptoms. Thus, with much disappointment and a slight feeling of failure (that I am working on overcoming) I opted out of the Nike Human Race event and spent the day relaxing at home with my family and getting ready for the upcoming week.

It felt good to do the right thing for my body, even if my mind is still trying to figure out what happened.